AOA 088 | Derek Sivers | Turning Observations Into Action

Derek Sivers Art of Adventure

Written by root

September 24, 2015

“How can we turn observations into action?”- Derek Sivers

I’m so thrilled to have the privilage of interviewing today’s guest on the Art of Adventure. He has been a mentor to me for many years, and he rarely grants interviews, so I take it as a huge honor to have Derek Sivers on the show! Plus, this is the first time another Derek has been on the podcast!

I’ve been following the Derek’s work for many years. Often, he will end a blog post by extending an offer to email him directly with questions. I first sent him an email more than five years ago and we have been in touch since then.

Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M in sales for 150,000 musicians.

In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby for $22M, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education.

He is a frequent speaker at the TED Conference, with over 5 million views of his talks.

Since 2011 he has published 34 books, including “Anything You Want” which shot to #1 on all of its Amazon categories.

I finally got to meet Derek at his home while I was visiting Wellington, NZ in May.

Derek is one of the greatest philosophers of our day, and has clear thoughts about careers, propose, learning, and being of value to the world.

One interesting fact Derek reveals in this episode is that despite being an introvert, he went so far as to hold 500+ 1-on-1 get togethers while living in Singapore with people that wanted to learn from him.

In this episode talk about building a career that makes you happy, how to learn from your work, compressing books into directives, how to get rich, mentorship, introversion, CD Baby, and global citizenship, and some of the adventures that Derek has had that helped him change his mind about Indonesia and weight lifting. I know you will love this interview.

Derek Sivers Art of Adventure

Quotes:

“You should never work for just money” – Derek Sivers

“Everything I do is in service of my future self” – Derek Sivers

“Money can be a measure of the value you provide” – Derek Sivers

“Is humbleness holding you back from being more useful?” – Derek Sivers

“Adventure has to stretch your self-image” – Derek Sivers

“Adventure changes personal prejudice – a thought you held, something you would never do” – Derek Sivers

“It doesn’t count as adventure if you come back the same” – Derek Sivers

“Delayed gratification is an indicator of success”- Derek Sivers

What you will learn in this episode:

-The difference between future and present focused individuals

-How to consider the lifetime value of an interaction

-How Derek is compressing books in to simple directives: “Do this…”

-How to get rich:

“Pursue market value instead of personal value”
“Live where luck strikes and be in the game”
“Say yes to everything and keep in touch with everyone”

-Why you should outsource 90% of your mentorship to books

-How and why Derek maintains multiple citizenship and legal resident status in NZ, Belgium, and Singapore

-How to deal with the ideas of passion and purpose

-How to choose where to live in the world (live where luck strikes)

Continue the Adventure:

Derek’ home site: Sivers.org

Derek’s mentor: Seth Godin

Wood Egg: Entrepreneurs Guides to Asia

Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur

So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

Michael Pollans book on food directives: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual

Book directive videos from The Conference:

How to thrive in an unknowable future

How to like people

 

Thanks Derek Sivers!

If you enjoyed this session of The Art of Adventure Podcast, let Derek know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter:

Click Here to thank Derek on Twitter!

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Derek Loudermilk Derek Sivers

I had the pleasure of meeting Derek at his home in Wellington, NZ

You might also like these episodes:

AOA 042 | Cal Newport | Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You
AOA 023 | Scott Young | Accelerated Learning and Big Ideas
AOA 075 | Jonathan Levi | Superlearning and Demonic Productivity

This episode is brought to you by the Travel Wisdom Podcast!

Ladan talks to all sorts of people (check out my episode here) and asks how travel has improved their lives. He’s and interesting dude who has spent about $30k to travel to 80 countries because he believes like I do that travel is an investment into your future.

Go to Travel Wisdom Podcast or find Travel Wisdom in iTunes or Stitcher or your favorite podcasting app. I love listening to the show and you should give it a try – I think you will as well.

More Quotes:

“I don’t like giving advice outside of my experience” – Derek Sivers

“I send people to books for advice” – Derek Sivers

“Why are you saying yes to things that exhaust you?” – Derek Sivers

“When building a career, forget the idea of passion and purpose” – Derek Sivers

“The downside of affluence is that we sit around thinking about our purpose” – Derek Sivers

“The ocean gets deeper the more you get into it” – Derek Sivers

“Most people like to be entertained, that’s why they live in cities”- Derek Sivers

“You can become a local in Singapore”- Derek Sivers

“Purpose is the result, do the work first” – Derek Sivers

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